Veteran sports writer Jim Utter covers NASCAR for The Charlotte Observer and its racing site, ThatsRacin.com. In this space, Jim writes about all things NASCAR and other forms of racing which may also be relevant ... or not.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

No driver has been mentioned more often on television, interviewed more
frequently, or collected more exposure value for their sponsors in the first half of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season than Jimmie
Johnson.According
to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc. — which has
monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 28 seasons — Johnson's
sponsors as a group appeared for 13 hours, 10 minutes, 46 seconds
during live and replayed telecasts of the season's first 18 points-paying races. When
also factoring in verbal mentions (82) of his sponsors, $45.3 million of
in-broadcast exposure value was amassed by the 43 brands monitored in
association with Johnson.

Joyce
Julius calculates television exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual
and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the
telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading, which takes into
account factors such as size and placement of the image on screen, as well as
brand clutter and integration of the brand into the
activity.